With costs rising for city services, churches and nonprofit organizations will soon have to pay a fire service fee.
The special assessment fee for fire services, which was adopted by the Gainesville City Commission on Thursday, was created to balance shortages in Gainesville’s budget for next year.
The notifications about the fee should be received via mail by June 24. All property owners, residential homes and business offices are included in the assessment, and no properties are exempt.
The fee won’t be the same for every building. The City Commission has proposed to establish the amounts based on factors such as the building’s hazard class, which is dictated by what the building is made of, the rate of flame spread and occupancy.
As of now, the City Commission has not set exact rates.
Gene Prince, interim fire chief for Gainesville Fire Rescue, said 14 percent of the city’s budget is for the fire department, and the department’s availability, demand and incident reports are used to determine the costs of operating and the level of service for the community. He said the fee is a stable funding method because the charges won’t fluctuate like other taxes.
Kent Vann, executive director at the St. Francis House said this is another financial burden placed on nonprofit organizations. But he said he understands the fee may be needed as an effort to save other services.
“I don’t think the City Commission realizes how insulting this is to volunteers,” said Jasmine Nebhrajani, a UF political science senior. “Charging charities and nonprofit buildings just isn’t right.”
The final meeting for the City Commission fire service special assessment will occur July 15.
